In search of a website blocker

Dorkman

GOod day gang.

I am in need of a fairly low key website blocker that I can install on my work computer. I have a nasty habit of finding myself wasting precious time wasting away hours at work. It's almost like I have ADD. I got in big trouble with it in my previous job, and really dont want to go through that again.

I tried looking but it all looks so shady. Basically I just need something that works with IE where I can enter in my favorite sites, so that when my resolve weakens, I get swift boot in the rear to get back to work.

Please, help a slacker stay on course!

Doc

in your windows/system32/drivers/etc/ directory there is a file called "hosts."

open it with notepad and add this to it:

127.0.0.1        site1.com
127.0.0.1        site2.com
127.0.0.1        someothersite.net
127.0.0.1        totallynotapornaddiction.com

This will make loading those sites fail on all browsers.

PracticalProblemSolver

you can put them all on one line in any reasonable operating system:

127.0.0.1 site1.com site2.com etc.com

Shark_MegaByte

Are you sure that's really what you need?

Put it another way, if I was in your shoes, and found what you're looking for, and entered my usual sites that can distract me most.... I think I'd eventually end up finding new distracting sites, and start a repeating cycle of trying to defeat myself.

Another thing you might try is a simple on-screen timer that lets you enter a countdown length, and then flashes, beeps, or alerts you in some way that your time is up. That way you can break for 15 minutes here and there to read the news or whatever, and then have a reminder when it's time to get back to work. (There is a sidebar widget for Vista that does exactly this - I've been using it to track remaining time when there's an Ebay auction I want to snipe)

mspencer

Both approaches -- the HOSTS file, and the ROUTE ADD routing blackhole -- require administrative permissions, and you may not have these.

You may be able to talk to a friendly IT person and get them to make the requested changes, depending on how open and friendly your IT department is. Even if your boss finds out about it, it seems to me this will come across as "evidence of self-improvement motivation" and will be a net positive thing.

Doc

PracticalProblemSolver wrote: »

you can put them all on one line in any reasonable operating system:

127.0.0.1 site1.com site2.com etc.com

Yeah, I wasn't sure if windows dealt with that correctly. Honestly, I had to look up the hosts file location in a windows environment.

Dinosaur Equals Gas

There is another thread with pretty much the same question, still on the 1st page even. http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=96100 :P

The solution for him was the hosts file. And I know you said IE, but if you have FireFox the extension mentioned in the last post "Leechblock" should be exactly what you are looking for.